"Do they have rainbows in Finland?" was a question I was asked today during a really lovely Skype call with the wonderful Nethergate Academy, a special school in Nottingham where I'm resident forest school leader / creative practitioner.  Its such a good question and really poetic, it really struck me what a lovely thing that was to ask.   All the children at Nethergate asked such great questions, its very special having the technology to do a live link with them, it means a lot.   I've been sending lots of images back to them - including many of "mini Baxter" a cuddly toy version of the real Baxter - the school dog.   (see if you can spot him in the photos below!). 

Colours have been in my head a lot here, the colour palette in the landscape is so rich and I'm deeply drawn to the different colours around me.   The colours change all the time depending upon the sun and cloud cover, but there are so many beautiful gentle shades of grey-green-golden-browns with all these intense flecks of deep colours dotted about the forest with fungi, berries and leaves beginning to turn such deep autumnal shades.

You could walk endlessly here and notice something different every time, partly because the light changes so much, partly because the colours in the foliage are changing daily and partly because there are so many tiny details to notice...  The colours of the landscape are almost summed up by the tiny snippets of detail found on some of the amazing rocks here. I've been spending spent ages looking at lichen and moss, so many wonderful grey-greens with tiny dots of reds, russets and golden yellows... Its like the vast forests with little flecks of intense colour where fungi grow dotted about...   And I'm really drawn to the ways the fungi and the tiny parts of the moss are like little vessels holding dew.

The arts studio here in Koli is such an inspiring space - and its big, which was slightly daunting in some ways at first but now I feel settled in here I can see just how vital such a space is - it's letting me really spread out and make things, test ideas out and leave things in place so that I can keep tweaking and rearranging (and that all sets other trains of thought off too).
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The forest is just outside the window and keeps calling out to me; I've begun to settle into a way of dividing my day between sessions with the school, walking in the forest and collecting and time making in the studio. This is my third week here and I'll be heading home at the end of the week, so it will be interesting to see what emerges during the next few days... I definitely feel this is just a beginning of exploring here...

I also find it so fascinating watching other people interact with the landscape here. I live close to the Peak District National Park and am out walking there a lot but there are so many differences here with the ways people are so calm and gentle and peaceful in the way they spend time in the land. You can walk for hours here and hardly see another human.  On Sunday I walked through the forest to the wonderful Nature Centre at the top of Ukko Koli (the hill top view point which is very well known here) and there were others out and about up there - but it was so peaceful.  People here are very careful to ensure they don't intrude with loud noises or behaviour that might cause problems for the land or for others. I've not seen any litter and no dog poo (and definitely no plastic bags of dog poo slung in trees) and people are walking dogs here. People at the hill top view points chat, but its calm - they do it in a way that allows others to enjoy the peaceful landscape and to watch the view without feeling encroached by the behaviour of others. There's fire pits here dotted all around and people just turn up, carefully make a fire, cook some food and then put the fire out and go on their way... Its all so much a part of how people spend their time that it feels so ingrained.

I think I must be part moomin really...

Its hard to begin to say just how inspiring it is here - and last night I managed to see one of natures pieces of magic right from where I'm staying...

I'm half way through my residency here in Finland (and already planning a return trip to continue the work) and last night, just as I was about to go to bed I glanced outside to check the sky as the space weather data (which I had been making a point of checking online) had said there might be some aurora - and sure enough, just past midnight the sky began to dance...  

Its really hard to focus the camera in the dark, but these shots are ok enough to give a bit of an idea of the awe of the northern lights. It's worth saying that what I could see just with my eye was paler than this; I had the camera on an 8 second exposure, so the camera sensor can pick the colours up far better than the eye can - but I've not changed the colours at all in these pictures, this is what the camera picked up.  
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I had to be up early today for a day in the school here, so I'm now really tired as it was so hard to pull myself away from the view last night! If I hadn't had a 6am start then I might have walked with the camera away form the tiny bit of street lighting which is outside where I'm staying. But, as this was the view from my apartment, its quite special too!   This was my first viewing of the northern lights, something I have wanted to see ever since I can remember being a tiny child; so it was a deeply important and significant moment. 

It feels like just one of so many layers of things that the land is revealing here - secrets that you have to be patient for, things that are visible only occasionally, fleetingly.    And because of that the reward in seeing them is so much deeper and sits with the soul...  

I've been here in Koli for 11 days now; I feel very immersed in everything here and yet its just a beginning - there's so very much to explore and investigate... I've begun to create some work in the wonderful studio space that's here at Kolin Ryynanen - and again, that's just a beginning...

Its such a fascinating landscape here that I've wanted to be outside with the camera walking and exploring as much as I possibly can. The studio (and apartment attached to it) is a really inspiring space with light flooding in, its just that the forest keeps calling out to me...
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Collecting and gathering things that intrigue me is a key part of my work and from the first day here I was gathering little bits of fallen twig, nibbled pine cones, fallen lichen and more...  my pockets bursting with tiny treasures... I've managed to find some (cheap) second hand Finnish books, so I'm trying to use those together with things I've brought with me.   I've been looking at ways of creating spaces to hold some of the gathered tiny pieces and thoughts and questions... Other things may emerge... These are just starting points... (plus I couldn't bring a printing press with me or enough pots and pans and steamers to set eco printing going, so some of the techniques I want to explore will have to wait to be continued back in the UK...).

Gathering objects and questions and little snippets of noticed things whilst out walking is a key interest for me and its something I explore in my own work and in the projects I work on with groups.   I've been out with the school gathering mushrooms; it's deeply inspiring to see how connected the children and staff are to the land.   There is a deep respect and trust and understanding which sits with people here and the school is such a lovely illustration of this.   The children have been learning lots about which mushrooms are edible and which are not and it's so great to see how this works in practice as they go off collecting - and many people forage here, there is a right of access to the land to do so, therefore small children grow up noticing the adults around them foraging with care as a part of daily life.   

There are little sculptural features dotted about the landscape as nature itself gathers and collects - massive wood ant nests of collected pine needles, branches and trunks of fallen trees which are caught up in other trees, colourful fungi which form bowl-like structures and gather dew, fallen birch leaves and tiny insects passing by.  Humans work the land by collecting - and take what they need, but not more.   Wood is carefully stacked and stored for fuel, hay is stored (I'm fascinated by the hay structures), barns hold food and fuel.   Buildings seem to sit so wonderfully in the landscape, as if they are at one with it - building materials are mostly wood with paints created from earthen pigments, so the structures made by man seem gentle and just respectfully placed on the land - nothing brash or egotistical about them. 
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I'm back in the school almost the whole of this week, I'm in there lots whilst here as part of the Lab 13 project work with Ignite. It's such a lovely little school - and blog posts about all that work will follow. There's so much to be learnt from the Finnish education system I feel...

(there will be more than a fleeting reference to the Moomins in my next few blog posts)

I arrived in Karelia, in the tiny village of Koli yesterday evening; there's so much to take in and absorb and so much to explore - I still can't quite believe I'm here...

I'm here as part of a wonderful programme of artists residencies which are organised in Koli by a dedicated and welcoming group of people and with Ignite and their fantastic Lab 13 Projects - an incredibly inspirational programme of work across many schools in the UK and internationally.

I intend to write several blog posts whilst here and to record and share explorations, discoveries, thoughts and ideas.   I'm also in close contact with the organisations I work with back in the UK so that ideas can go back and forth.  Its an amazing opportunity and I feel very lucky to be here.

I've been to Finland several times; it's a country I deeply love; Karelia and Koli is a part of Finland I've not been to before, so there are many new things to discover and encounter and I relish the opportunity to explore, create and share ideas here.

I've got a wonderful studio space and apartment here (the artists residency is so well organised and so many kind details have been thought through), I know many others have been here and created many kinds of work in response to the landscape.   I've brought some materials, cameras, equipment and starting points of ideas here - but I'm hoping to explore and share and see where my literal and creative wonderings take me.

We will be working with the village school here further developing their Lab 13 work; its a tiny school on the edge of the forest and there seems huge potential for creative scientific explorations.

I will add much more in the coming days, for now here's some of the things that have inspired me and made me smile so far:

the stillness, the calm, the peace and quiet

the clear, fresh, clean air

the tiny details in the landscape - tiny leaves, lichen, berries, fungi and moss

the layers of colour and the way this gives a sort of haze to the vast landscape

the way human habitation sits calmly and respectfully within the landscape, the quirky touches of individual buildings all add to this

​the people we met today on the hill top at Ukko Koli - where people calmly and peacefully arrived to take in the view and gently chatted.  It wasn't busy and it was really calm up there; the people we did meet were from many different countries: one group had carried up there a lovely basket of goodies, another group shared a glass of bubbly to celebrate being there, a group of young students from several countries were full of smiles at the landscape, another group had a great chat with us about creative education and looking after osprey nests...  What's especially striking is the calm and respect shown to the landscape; I didn't see any litter left (which happens so much in the UK), there's such a strong sense of people spending a lot of time in nature and of treading lightly on the land.

the dog and its owner gazing out across the lake earlier

intriguing paw prints by the lake shore (which creatures had emerged from the forest for a drink?)

interesting bird calls

and more...  much more...

Its been an incredibly busy but wonderful time at the Inspirational Outdoors Conference at the start of this week.   My head is busily digesting everything and eager to put some new ideas into practice.   

This is the second year of the conference, it was fantastic last year and has now grown into a 2 day event packed full of workshops, talks, discussions and so many amazing ways of sharing ideas; the delegates came from across the UK with some international presence too and the ideas were flowing all over with such excitement.   

I was really delighted to be running sessions this year, as well as attending the whole conference, it was a deeply immersive experience and the layers of inspiration run deep.   I camped at the venue along with a few other participants, which enabled us to cook our meals outside as we watched dusk set in and continued to discuss so many aspects of creativity outside.   The 20 minute walk down the hillside to the beach is an added bonus and enabled us to be sat on the sand watching the sun sink below the horizon as we unpicked our ideas and thoughts around the millions of ways connections with nature encourage creativity, calm, learning and ignite curiosity.

I ran sessions which were a bit of a whistle-stop tour of exploring ways of working with clay outside and of working with natural materials to generate colours; the participants were wonderful with their ideas and enthusiasm and warm energy as we explored lots of different things.   It left me buzzing with further ideas and being able to share thoughts about ways of working creatively outside with groups feels very important.   It feeds deeply into all the long term groups I'm working with in Nottingham and Derbyshire. 

I was able to participate in so many sessions, discussions and listen to talks, its such a vital thing to have time to do this, it reinforces so much and ignites so many ideas.   Meeting and listening to Niki Buchan speak was wonderful, she'd travelled in from Australia to talk with a wealth of knowledge and examples of outdoor education from across the world.   We were all transfixed.  The fantastic Gill Mulholland from The Eden Project ran brilliant sessions on using the outside to ignite stories and poems and so much more, I also learnt to make pewter casts over an open fire, something I've wanted to have a go at for ages, the really lovely Lisa Chell ran a  great session on this.    Phil Waters ran a wonderful storytelling quest with the entire set of delegates and there was so much more going on, its hard to know where to start to digest it all!

The venue is the deeply inspirational Mount Pleasant Eco Park which holds unexpected delights at every turn - worth a visit just to see everything that's being developed there.  

​The conference is organised by the wonderful Niki Willows an outdoor play specialist and Martin Besford of Highway Farm (again, one of the most inspirational educational settings I've visited in the UK).  

Details of next years conference are here: ​https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inspirational-outdoors-2019-cornwalls-outdoor-play-learning-conference-tickets-47063722862?aff=erelexpmlt

HUGE THANKS for the photographs below, I was too busy to take many images this year, so most of the images below were taken either by Martin Scull for the conference or by Simon Turk of Treecreepers which I am incredibly grateful for.  

“When we tug at a single thing in nature we find it attached to the rest of the world.” John Muir

Another remote calm spot here in Derbyshire is Lathkill Dale, which a few days ago was filled with the colours, sights, sounds and smells of late summer - all very soothing.   There were many buzzards soaring and calling, ravens. dippers, grey wagtails and many other birds, including robins singing their wonderful late summer song which feels very evocative of this time of year.    There's something special about these times of transition from one season to another.

​Lathkill Dale is another of the many wonderful places where the remnants of human history mingle with nature, there's old mine workings and a couple of buildings which hint at many stories, as well as nearby stone circles and sites from thousands of years ago, so recent and very ancient human history is nearby.

​These images were taken last week, on one of the last days before the new school term began.    I really love the work I do in schools and its a privilege to be able to work creatively with young people exploring connections with nature and questions about the world, but its also a welcomed change in pace when the school holidays enable longer walks with the camera and time for deep exploration.

​For me, its times in contemplation with natural spaces where solace and peace lies, that's where discoveries are made and there always feels so much to notice.    Even when its places you've been to hundreds of times there are always more and more layers to peel away - and the changing seasons mean that each day new things are revealed or changes take place.

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These were all taken two days ago, up at Over Owler Tor near Hathersage in Derbyshire, a really amazing landscape with wide moorland views, hills, rocky outcrops and twisting pathways at every turn.  I do love autumn but also seek to really cherish these late summer evenings and I've been out with the camera and a note book exploring a lot recently (especially precious time trying to cram moments full of wonderings in nature before the school term starts again and my work schedule changes).

​I'm very aware that there's a slightly comic look when climbing a hill laden down with camera equipment (and a picnic), but its worth it and there's a huge sense of reward that comes with then waiting and watching as the light changes and the sun gets lower in the sky.   Several times recently I've had owls and bats about me on the way back to the car, its a special feeling sharing that transition from day to night, those moments of change in nature are filled with so many tiny details.

​I wasn't alone up at Over Owler Tor - there was a tortoise and a frog there too (if you look in the images below they should leap out) and I like to think that the ancient people who used Carl Wark Hill Fort very close by would have also seen creatures in the stones (not so sure they would have seen a tortoise though).

Its the last day of August today and I've found myself reflecting back on the summer and the different places,  events and moments which have been inspiring - and these little Shepherds Huts were very much amongst those thoughts.   We all need a little escape and definitely for many of us there is something very appealing about the quirks of tiny spaces - its why so many of us love dolls houses, sheds, beach huts, caravans and Wendy Houses.    And put such spaces into a remote rural setting with views over wide landscapes then so many special things come into play.

​I'm very aware that when in use by Shepherds all those years ago these Huts were rather a basic living space with sacks of straw to sleep on and non of the fancy wooden furniture you find in them now...  but they are incredibly appealing and cosy and they do conjure up so many thoughts.    And there is something appealing in the fact that the huts can be moved around and taken to all sorts of locations amongst fields and woodland and hills...

​These images were all taken at a wonderful location we stayed in very recently, deep in the hills of the Scottish Borders, a gorgeous place which definitely felt very remote and away from it all, just what we needed.  The huts themselves are wonderful and the location is stunning, there were so many little details of textures, colours, patterns and different combinations of these at every turn.    We found ourselves creating stories and anecdotes about everything - as well as breathing deep restful breaths at the lack of "stuff" and clutter...   Its such an interesting experience to live in a small space for a while and to not need so much stuff...    Getting up early and sitting out watching the mist roll over the hills as you sup your morning coffee...   cooking and eating outside, lighting the fire and watching the dusk roll in and night fall as bats and owls flit about and call...    All very peaceful and idyllic.   I'm very aware that its an escape from many other things, but an escape which recharges the batteries and gives strength to return to all the other things. 

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August is always a time of year when schools projects ease off and there's a bit of a change of pace, its often a time when there's a bit of space to sort through work equipment and resources, to do some research and planning for further arts projects.   And with that often comes a chance to sort out my work room and even pay my own wildlife garden some attention...  so with trying to work through a huge list of jobs, I've been ensuring I intersperse it with time in the local landscape with the camera, maps and some space to ponder and contemplate.

​I've been living in Derbyshire for several years, but I grew up in the fens, so the landscape here is much more hilly than the flatness of the fens, but there is a wildness - even an appealing bleakness - about both places and also traces of ancestors to be found in many ways.   I live near Belper, a landscape that's part of the Derwent Mills World Heritage Site, a fascinating place full of ancient woodland, steep river valleys, moors and scattered throughout with buildings connected with the Industrial Revolution.    But there's also vast ancient history here and lots of that is clearly evident all around with stone circles, hill forts and traces of things like lead mining from the Romans and before that too.

​These are images I took last week between the ancient stone circle of Arbor Low and the steep industrial valley of Lumsdale, both nearby, really enchanting places and if you time it right, wonderful when hardly anyone else is about.  Arbor Low is an a high exposed site, with views for miles around (and wild winds often too!), its easy to speculate about why ancient people would have found the location captivating.    The stones are now all lying down, no one seems to really know why, but it does give the place an air of quirkiness too.  At sunset there's a real sense of the landscape settling down for the night as you can see for such vast distances and watch flocks of birds going to roost.  

​Lumsdale contains much more recent ruins, dating back to a set of mills and associated buildings which possibly go back as far as the 1600s.  Its a really fascinating place with an amazing combination of ruined stone buildings, waterfalls, woodland, ponds and tracks through the valley.  

​Both places invite you to really ponder about past uses and the lives of those who lived, worked and used the sites in many ways.  I love the way natural materials like stones contains marks which hold traces of past lives, old stone steps worn about by thousands of footsteps over the years or stones which have been cut and shaped by ancient hands.   

​And amidst the intensity of trying to sort out vast amounts of arts equipment, forest school resources, project planning and more, time out in landscape such as this provides such a sense of soothing and inspiration.    Special places to breathe deeply and take in far more than just fresh air... 

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After returning from Wales with some new energy I've found time to dig out lots of pots and pans that I use for natural dyes and to experiment with the wonderful technique of eco printing, something I've been meaning to explore for AGES!  ​Its already really addictive and hopefully I can make lots of time to play around with ideas before autumn sets firmly in and leaves and petals are then harder to find. 

I got together with the very wonderful Claire Crowley and Claire Uttley, two other creative forest school leaders who also wanted to explore this technique.    We spent at day at AMC Gardens (where I work a little bit of each week) and used the plants around us there to test lots of ideas out.    Once back home we've all continued to experiment - the day together was exactly the impetus we each needed.

​Bundle dyeing is a technique lots of people know through the work of the amazing artist India Flint, who creates really beautiful work and has published some very inspirational books, there are quite a lot of people exploring the technique now, partly through a desire to create work that has low impact on the environment, partly as part of a desire to slow down and take a more mindful approach to creating work and also as part of the interest in using the plants around us as a source for creations.

​I've been using plants to print with for many years, but mostly by working with printing inks and then layering up plants and papers through the printing press, which does give results I really love.     I've been exploring natural dyes for some time, but mostly onto raw sheep's fleece and then using this for felt making (though I'm determined to learn to use a spinning wheel too!).  This technique of eco bundle dyeing / printing is one I've been researching and its wonderful to finally feel I've begun my journey with this. 

​I love working with plants that surround me in different places, its part of forming a deep connection with the land and its definitely something I indent to continue to develop.  I grow many plants in my own little wildlife garden that are good for dye stuff and this printing process is like asking them to yield up new secrets!

​The actual process is very much about trial and error and also about stopping, slowing down and not needing a quick fix.    Taking time to walk and explore and gather the plants is important, some research into which plants are good for dyes is important too (although testing many out will give interesting and surprising results).    I'm especially enjoying the results onto paper and it will feed into all the little books I've been making.

​The paper and fabric is bundled up tightly and steamed (for at least an hour, but often much longer) and then left to cool before opening (the longer its left, the more the colours "cure").  There's lots of ways of adding mordants and colour modifiers and then also over-dyeing and re-dyeing etc, so its all very much about testing and experimenting and then recording results - its that wonderful cross over between art and science.

​I'm just off to gather more leaves!